The Paper Planner Inbox

The Paper Planner Inbox

Douglas Johnston has written an article on how to setup a @Inbox with paper. He urged that keeping Getting Things Done‘s procedure capture and empty is important to stay organised. Couple of tips from Douglas include:

* Keep your data capture system handy for whenever you need it. Either carry your entire system –for example, your planner or your PDA– or have a “satellite” capture tool, like a Hipster PDA. * Make sure you can enter your data fast. If you can’t type or write quickly enough, you’ll never capture the requisite information. (It took me months to write fast enough with Palm Graffiti for decent memos, but I also needed some practice with real handwriting again before I could write quickly with a pen.) * Don’t let your captured data stagnate or build up. Channel it at least once a day.

He then described how he setup his paper planner based inbox building the idea around GTD.

… I’d advise setting up a planner section as a “special place” designated with its own tab called @Inbox. This should be easily accessible, not half-hidden or located between hard-to-reach tabs. I’d also advise putting this near the centre of the planner, not far from an @Actions tab (where you can keep your Next Actions, Waiting For and Agenda items). Why the centre? Well, the @Inbox and the @Actions sections are going to have a lot of paper both inserted and taken away; it’s far easier to do this when the opening of the rings is close by. I also put a red dot on the tab for these two sections to stress the immediacy of the material…